your most exciting food (both chinese and the west)......

[zozzen]

I'm in love with cooking and sometimes i'd like to make chinese food for my friends to excite and impress them.

蒜蓉牛油開邊蝦 and 海鮮蒸旦 served in a beautiful oriental-style cup always impress my friends from other asian countries including japan, vietnam, and local chinese, but it seems that westerners aren't particularly excited with this.

And it's really a big surprise to me that they, in return, prepared potato smash with milk, fishes & chips and a bowl of mussels (served with french fries). You guys should know where they come from as they said these are their national dishes, but i'm really not impressed at all.

So, i'm wondering:

--- Which Chinese food can enjoy more chance to impress westerners?

--- And by your experience, which western food can have higher chance to receive "big WOW" from your chinese local friends?

[zozzen]

Btw, here's the recipes for the dishes above. I don't know why a small number of westerners i met don't like it. IMPOSSIBLE!

蒜蓉開邊蝦.

- pick up BIG shrimp, the bigger the better.

- cut them in half, lay them on a dish, pick up intestines

- pour smashed garlic and butter onto shrimps.

- steam it for 10 mins.

海鮮蒸蛋

- Add water into egg by 1 egg : 2 water ratio, stir it VERY thoroughly. (Add some meat source or chicken powder and salt to enhance flavor, but if you don't like these, use chicken soup to replace water)

- slice mushroom (or any fungus), cut "glass noodle" (粉絲) into small pieces.

- prepare several beautiful cups.

- put shrimps, clams or sliced squids into the cup. add some white pepper.

- there'll be small bubbles, break it before you steam it. It won't destroy the flavor, but it doesn't look good.

- if that's the first time you steam egg and don't know how to adjust fire, use the lowest fire to steam it for 30 mins.

[roddy]

If you can do anything 铁板 and bring it in sizzling you might get the reaction you want.

[Yang Rui]

i'm really not impressed at all.

It sounds like you have the same problem your friends have - not being particularly impressed by foreign food. Different cultures emphasise different qualities in food. In Asia, expensive seafood is widely prized. In northern Europe, people often like hearty, warming dishes.

Personally, I like 蒜蓉開邊蝦, but any kind of 蒸蛋 is nothing to get excited about for me. I think any kind of food can be good if it's done well. To take your example of mussels and french fries, if the fries are crispy on the outside and soft in the middle, and the mussels are lovely and garlicky it's fantastic.

As a "westerner" I like 鱼香肉丝, 京酱肉丝 and similar good homestyle stuff. Might not sound very exciting or impressive, but I love them.

[gougou]

Anything 糖醋 works really well with Westerners too; with my ex, we made sweet and sour chicken for a whole floor of our dormitory in Moscow, and people loved it.

But as much as I love Chinese food, I'd still have the mussels and fries over anything else that has been mentioned above

[flameproof]

It sounds like you have the same problem your friends have - not being particularly impressed by foreign food.

Most people simply don't enjoy food. They just eat it. Whatever it is. If they know it they like it, if not, not. Most just don't understand food or cooking. Many people like instant noodles, for me, everybody that like those factory produced products is disqualified from commenting on food.

When I cook for people I often do Thai food. Curry and soups, not too spicy if possible. Pizza is good too (but needs a hot oven (>300C), which most don't have).

Stews are good too. Goulash or Nikujaga is fine. Baked chicken is fine too (but needs space if you do more then one). Soups go also down well. A nice beef soup or asparagus or tomatosoup is great too as a starter.

Ok, this is silly, but easy and nice is garlic bread, or the next step, bruschetta.

PS: Sweet&Sour is what I really nearly dislike most. Tastes really terrible, plus - they never use meat, just grizzle and bones. #1 of bad tastes is cantonese lemon chicken.

[zozzen]

and how do you see Chinese syrup soup? A few days ago, i prepared a big bowl of 雪耳燉木瓜 to my friends. The general responses were like this:

Southern Asians (including viet & hk ) were very okay with this.

"Mainland" Chinese (not from coastline) complained it's too sweet.

Several europeans said it's weird.

After that, I served them in a glass instead of a bowl and take it as a coffee and tea, people seem to be more okay with this. (not very okay though)

If you have to pick one of the most impressive Chinese dessert, which one will you choose?

[flameproof]

I don't like most sweet food as main dish. Maybe I can exclude pancakes and rice pudding (specially with cinnamon).

I am more familiar with HK desserts. What I like is:

Sai mai low (sago)

Yeung zi gam loh (sago with mango and pomelo)

dou za wo beng (pencakes with red bean filling)

I don't like red beans, but those pancakes are OK)

Seems in China they only have fruits as dessert, well, you can't go wrong with that.

[zozzen]

PS: Sweet&Sour is what I really nearly dislike most. Tastes really terrible, plus - they never use meat, just grizzle and bones.

That was what i disliked but after having it in a good restaurant in hong kong, i truely appreciated this.

香脆的炸粉包著一小塊豬肉, 浸在糖醋汁中. 奇怪是炸粉和醬汁好像獨立生存, 誰也不干擾誰, 但咬下去時, 卻又覺得兩者混合得十分完美 .

but among Chinese tourists from hong kong or the south, it's best-known to avoid sour-sweet pork in Europe. If you really want this, always let the chef know you're Chinese, and you need REAL chinese food.

[flameproof]

I found sweetnsour pork in Europe and HK/China quite similar in taste, seems the sauce is always from the same factory. Difference is, in Europe they use meat, in HK/China grizzle. I hate grizzle, fat, crushed bones.

I almost never cook Chinese, once I tried laziji / 辣子鸡 - real Sichuan style. At home you can do it way better then in a restaurant, with quality oil - and NO bones!

(funnily, I couldn't find Sichuan pepper in HK, had to buy it in Shenzhen)

[Lu]

What do you even call that stuff, the really thin seafood? scrapes that get put over a dish, and since the dish is warm and the flakes are very thin, they move, as if they were still alive.

Silly perhaps, but this stuff never ceases to amaze me, and every time I have a dish with this on it I pause to look before I eat.

[flameproof]

What do you even call that stuff, the really thin seafood? scrapes that get put over a dish, and since the dish is warm and the flakes are very thin, they move, as if they were still alive.

Silly perhaps, but this stuff never ceases to amaze me, and every time I have a dish with this on it I pause to look before I eat.

Bonito Flakes = Katsuobushi = 鰹節 or かつおぶ

[anonymoose]

Most of the westerners I know, including myself, are not particularly keen on bony things, so anything that doesn't contain bones is a good start.

[zozzen]

Sichuan pepper can be bought in Wanchai wet market. There's a big store selling very large variety of curry, chili and pepper. ( forget its name, very near to the Spring Garden Road)

[skylee]

but among Chinese tourists from hong kong or the south, it's best-known to avoid sour-sweet pork in Europe. If you really want this, always let the chef know you're Chinese, and you need REAL chinese food.

The only time I went to a Chinese restaurant in Europe was when I was in Florence (for the first time IIRC). I couldn't read an Italian menu so they gave me an English one. It did not occur to me that perhaps they spoke Chinese or perhaps there was a Chinese menu. The food was awful. And when I gave them my credit card, they saw my name and asked if I was Chinese, I said yes and they gave me a discount. Probably I didn't look Chinese enough.

What do you even call that stuff' date=' the really thin seafood? scrapes that get put over a dish, and since the dish is warm and the flakes are very thin, they move, as if they were still alive.

Silly perhaps, but this stuff never ceases to amaze me, and every time I have a dish with this on it I pause to look before I eat.[/quote']

It is called 柴魚絲/片 in HK. 柴魚 is also called 木魚 (the food, not the percussion instrument).

[zozzen]

I shared almost the same experience. The owner of Chinese restaurant said, "oh I didn't know it's your order! It's for 'ghost', not for 'human'. " ( sorry for the words, i believed he didn't mean to be offensive ) I didn't finish the "fusion" sweet-sour pork , and no discount received.

And thanks for Lu's great hints about "wooden" fish. If i add this on the top of steamed egg, i suppose it's gonna amaze and surprise my friends. Haha.

[flameproof]

Most of the westerners I know, including myself, are not particularly keen on bony things, so anything that doesn't contain bones is a good start.

There are exceptions. Larger bones are OK (spare ribs), T-bones etc. A nice spring chicken is nice too. Fish is another issue, it needs eating skills, otherwise it may turn to a bony mess. Since at a Chinese dinner at least one person has no fish eating skill it's usually a bony mess.

People in China usually have near zero knowledge of foreign food. They think it's just burgers all day outside of China. And frankly, if they have eaten western food it may confirm there prejudice since it's usually really bad in China.

To give them a positive experience you have to use a little trick. If you cook for Chinese, never tell them it's a dish from *** (fill in your country). Tell them it's from Heilongjiang. If a person is from there, tell them is from near the Russian border. Or tell them it's from Qinghai, no Chinese person has ever been to Qinghai, or use Yunnan.

Since they now think it's Chinese they will like it. After the dinner you can tell them that there is a similar dish in your country too. Trust me, it works.

[imron]

Haha, that's a great trick

[gougou]

Not sure whether Qinghai'd work for mussels and fries, though

[imron]

Not sure whether Qinghai'd work for mussels and fries, though

Then swap it for a coastal city like Qingdao or Qinhuangdao.

Actually we used to get pretty decent fries where I used to live in Qinhuangdao. The name is pretty self-explanatory, so if you asked for 炸土豆条 in any restaurant they could usually make it without any trouble even if it wasn't on the menu.

Some restaurants there could also do pretty mean calamari rings (炸鱿鱼圈).